August 24, 2011

The folks who make Inkodye sent over a sample the other day. Inkodye is light-sensitive dye for textiles or any natural fibers, including wood and raw leather. It acts like the Sunprint paper you might have used as a kid, only you can brush this dye on anything you want and it comes in lots of colors. Like orange, of course.

For my first test of this magical stuff, I planned to make a safety pin print on fabric. Something quick and easy in case it was a flop.

I wrapped cardboard with a piece of old plastic tablecloth to make a waterproof surface. I laid white cotton fabric on top and taped down the edges to make brushing easier.

Then I poured a little Inkodye onto a paper plate, and with a foam brush, I painted it onto the fabric. It has a little color in its unexposed state, so it was easy to see where I'd already applied it.

As soon as I was done brushing on the dye, I scrambled to arrange some safety pins on top of the fabric. I was a little paranoid that the dye would start to develop before I brought it out into the sun, so in my haste I forgot to take a photo. (Turns out it's not quite that tricky, so I didn't need to hyperventilate as much.)

Outside the back door, I placed the board in direct sunlight. Immediately the orange color started to deepen. After 5 or 6 minutes it was super orange so I brought it back inside, removed the pins, and took the fabric off the board.

To keep the dye under the pins from developing, I immediately rinsed the fabric under the faucet and then washed it out with laundry detergent. (You can use a washing machine and dryer for this step if you like.)

Here's what the fabric looks like when it's dry. The color is really vibrant, and I was quite pleased. I sewed it into a zipper pouch.

I gave the Inkodye a test drive on a couple other projects, too, so I'll post those in the next few days. It's fun to play with!

I came across Inkodye on another site and was curious as to how well it actually worked and how fast it develops. I'm glad they gave you some to play around with and report to us about! I can't wait to see your other projects with it.

Mere, the chair would need to be unfinished raw wood, I think, for the dye to soak in. If it's a painted or varnished chair, I bet the dye won't "stick." But yes, if you scrub the chair really well once you've dyed it, it should be fine. And then you could apply a spray acrylic finish or something to seal it.

... so if you drew opaquely (with paint maybe) on a piece of glass, or printed opaquely on transparencies (maybe doubling up to be sure), and laid it over your fabric... you could use the method used to develop screens for screenprinting, but skip the actual screeprinting step? I mean it'd be fabric showing through dye but you could invert couldn't you?

Or even just embrace it. And have the drawing show through as negative space.

This fabric (thin cotton) was probably 11x17ish. I think maybe I used 3 tablespoons of dye? Totally guessing. You can also thin the dye with water if you want a paler color. I also did a project on wood and the dye goes a lot further since it doesn't get soaked up as much.

Jess, I think Mere meant white fabric on a chair, no? i can't see why that wouldn't work, but I would test sit on it first. I wanna try some color on top of another color and see if i can get pink and purple converse, or something else ridiculous. :)

This is awesome! When you say "I immediately rinsed the fabric under the faucet and then washed it out with laundry detergent" did you untape it from the waterproof surface before rinsing it, or did you leave it taped flat while you held it under the faucet?

I followed the zipper pouch instructions in the book "Sew What! Bags" by Lexie Barnes. But the internet is strewn with zipper pouch tutorials, so if you google you should have many options to choose from.

I took a class in cyanotype and this is basically the same process - but a better selection of colour! Ooh the possibilities! We used photocopied transparencies to get fun images.Good luck on finding a way to transfer drawings without condensation! Looking forward to it!!!

These are beautiful! I love all of your work and am excited to read more of your posts. I am new to blogging and stubbled upon your blog, probably because my favorite color is orange. Thanks again for putting lots of effort into your blog.

Sorry but I'm new to all this computer stuff. Everyones comments are interesting but unless I missed it---Where did you buy the product? I sew for my grandchildren and this could be made very personal. Thanks, Nana

These were called Rayographs (because of Man Ray) or Photograms. They have been done on photo paper but also on motion picture negative! Which is awesome.

I've done some, with a trail of soil over a few meters of negative. Check it out here: http://vimeo.com/1205393. The poster is a rayograph too, a rather big one with glass bottles on it too (interesting light play).